Microwave popcorn blamed in house blaze

A house fire Wednesday night in west Lawrence caused about $45,000 in damage.

Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical responded to the fire at 2010 Riviera Court just after 9 p.m.

Douglas County Fire Marshal Rich Barr said it appeared that a bucket of burned microwave popcorn caused the fire. The bucket was in a trash can, which caught fire.

"It's an interesting case," Barr said. "What we're doing now is we're going to test that out ourselves. We've just never seen that, and we want to be able to utilize the information in similar investigations in the future. Microwave popcorn is everywhere."

Some family members who were home discovered smoke in the basement and managed to escape with their three dogs. Barr said a 9-year-old girl at the house discovered the fire.